We here at Tiny Mix Tapes like to keep you abreast on all matters copyright-related without making pirate jokes. This is why our news feeds are set to Swedish newspapers, even though we don't speak Swedish. The past two days in Sweden have taken an interesting turn on all matters copyright on two fronts.
First, the political. Across Europe, elections for the European Parliament, the EU's legislative body, were taking place over the last few days. Much of the press spotlight has been on the UK, where Labour was crushed in elections by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats. But we don't care about Gordon Brown and his ratty YouTube smile. We care about copyright, and that's why we're in Sweden: The Piratpartien (The Pirate Party), a party dedicated to copyright reform, scored fifth in the overall election with over 7% of the vote, higher than more significant parties such as the Left and Christian Democrat parties. This means the party is guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament, to be taken by the activist Christian Engström in the fall.
Immediately, the effects are very limited. Even if the proposed Lisbon Treaty was implemented, the most the the Pirate Party could pick up is two seats out of over SEVEN HUNDRED. The influence it has on the parliament will be minimal, at best. However, the impact over the longterm is much more significant. If one were to translate its place and vote percentage into next year's Riksdag (Swedish parliament) election, it would gain about 20 seats. For reference, the last Riksdag election was determined by precisely that many seats. In politics, they call that being a "kingmaker," which means the party could significantly influence policy. And though many more votes are at stake, the Pirate Party has a lot of momentum: It is the second largest party for the 18-34 age bracket and has the largest youth wing in Sweden (which means a lot more in Europe).
It also helps that the Pirate Bay trial remains in the news constantly, which brings us to our next front: Legal. Yesterday, in the appeals case for the Pirate Bay 4, the Svea Court of Appeal heard arguments from the Stockholm District Court, whose judge, Tomas Norstrom, presided over the trial. One of the key issues with the appeal concerns the judge, who was a member of two known Swedish pro-copyright organizations. TPB attorneys presented a case a few weeks prior that the judge's membership allegedly made him biased against TPB.
So what is the Stockholm District Court's defense of his pro-copyright membership? In a statement to the court, "The memberships are simply a means to gain increased knowledge of copyright legislation issues and are not therefore grounds to establish bias," and that "it is imperative that judges remain abreast of the issues." With all due respect to the Who guitarist, this sounds like the "Pete Townshend" defense: Claiming you were involved in inappropriate/illegal activity for "research" purposes. It's also trying cheat your way out of the system.
We will keep you posted with updates on each as the trial continues, and stay tuned for our new feature column, "Michael Engström går till Bryssel." Or not.
